


To Meet a Mate

by nightlight9



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Laura Hale, Derek Hale & Sheriff Stilinski Friendship, M/M, Mates Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Spark Stiles Stilinski, Sterek Week 2017, Unconventional Meeting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2017-10-29
Packaged: 2019-01-25 18:58:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12538928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightlight9/pseuds/nightlight9
Summary: Sweat pools on Derek’s forehead, dripping into his eyes. His body lays broken on the forest floor, ragged breathing the only noise, wet and unnatural. He should be thinking about what it will take to get out of this situation, should be considering how he’s going to get back to Laura and his pack. The only thought rolling through his head though is one sentence, on repeat:of course it would be my mate that kills me.





	To Meet a Mate

**Author's Note:**

> Some context for the setting: the Hale family was killed by Kate, and Laura and Derek were the only survivors. After living in New York for a few years, they move back to Beacon Hills to reclaim the land their family has loved on for generations. They create their new pack, which includes the still-human Sheriff, who as become something like a pseudo-father for them.
> 
> Scott was bite in high school by a rogue alpha (not Peter) and was taken in and trained by Chris, who also helped Stiles with his spark. Together they work with Chris to help save werewolves from hunters. Scott, Allison and Stiles all live and work in San Francisco.

Sweat pools on Derek’s forehead, dripping into his eyes. His body lays broken on the forest floor, ragged breathing the only noise, wet and unnatural. He should be thinking about what it will take to get out of this situation, should be considering how he’s going to get back to Laura and his pack. The only thought rolling through his head though is one sentence, on repeat: _of course it would be my mate that kills me_.  
\----------  
48 Hours Earlier  
\----------  
“You’re not going to have dessert?” Derek glances up at John, taking in the stern expression that’s trying not to crack under the Sheriff’s amusement.“You know, son, dessert is one of the greatest things a man can indulge in. And life is too short not to enjoy it.” He leans back in the booth and crosses his arm, looking satisfied. “And you and I both know that you have a huge sweet tooth.”

Derek ducks his head in a grin. It is true, Derek loves sweets. He accepts the dessert menu from the amused waitress with a grumble just for show, though he has already picked out the molten lava cake to go with his coffee.

“What were you saying about your son?” Derek asks after their orders are taken.

John brightens immediately, setting his coffee to one side. “Oh, yeah! He’s finally coming to visit!”

Derek cocks his head to the side. In the eleven months that he’s known John, his son has never made an appearance back in town. He works for an up-and-coming tech agency in San Francisco, and doesn’t get much time off. Seeing John’s smile makes contentment thrum in Derek’s core. 

“When is he coming into town?”

“He should be here in a few days, after he finishes up this project he’s working on. I would like it if you and Laura could come by sometime for dinner to meet him. Stiles can be a bit of a handful sometimes, and he works a lot, but it would mean a lot to me to introduce you.”

Derek smiles into him mug. Sometimes it’s still hard for him to believe how much John has come to care for him and his sister since they’ve returned to Beacon Hills. It’s nice, hearing that he wants to share another part of his life with them, and that he thinks they’re important enough to introduce to the rest of his family. After having no one but Laura for so long, and even after creating a pack in Beacon Hills again, it’s still strange for Derek to have someone to rely on so completely, someone to look up to and find comfort in. And John has been that for him. He’s filled in as a father figure of sorts, and Derek is grateful for that and the friendship they’ve formed.

“Laura and I would be honored, John,” he says honestly. “Let us know when you’d like us to come over, and we’ll be there.”

“Thanks. It means a lot. I know he doesn’t get a chance to come home very often, but I’d like it if he could get to know you guys a little bit.” Their dessert arrives, and John rubs his hands together when the plates are sat down. Derek’s nose twitches at the sticky sweet smell of his cake, and John laughs at his eager expression. “See, I knew that you wanted dessert.”  
\----------  
Present Time  
\----------  
Someone is yelling, loud and angry. It’s not Laura, though Derek can tell even without opening his eyes that she’s there too. Isaac, maybe? John? Before Derek has a chance to open his eyes, he remembers what happened before he blacked out, the shots tearing through his body, the scent of his mate sweet and overwhelming as he fell to the ground.

Opening his eyes with a gasp, Derek tries to remember how he got out of the forest, tries to recall how he made it out alive. But all there is is darkness and that scent, and then Laura is leaning over him.

“Thank the Gods, Der,” she says, pulling him into a tight hug. 

It turns out that John had been the one yelling, though he cuts off whatever impassioned rant had him going in the first place when he sees Derek sit up.

“It’s good to see you up,” he says, looking like he’s considering crossing the floor to hug Derek too. “When I got Laura’s call, we weren’t sure you were going to pull through.”

Someone else in the room sighs, a man in his early twenties that Derek has never seen before. “He was never in any danger, John,” the man explains, probably not for the first time if the exasperation in his voice is anything to go by. “He was never actually in harm's way.”

Laura snarls, eyes flashing red, and the girl standing beside Scott steps closer to him. “How can you say that when you dragged him unconscious and bleeding out of the forest?”

The man’s eyes flare gold in response, but all he does is sigh again. “I’ve been trying to tell you that we were helping him.”

“By hunting him, Scott!” John angles his body so that Derek is shielded. “I’m sorry if we don’t believe you, but can you really blame us.”

While they are argue around him, Derek takes stock of his surroundings. He recognizes the veterinary clinic, but can’t decide why he would have been brought here to heal. Sure, he knows that Deaton is a Druid, but Deaton isn’t around. Nothing seems to be adding up.

Before he gets the chance to ask his own questions, he hears another car pull up to the building and park. Scott perks up at that. “Okay, John, just wait and maybe we can explain everything to you.”

Laura mutters, “I doubt it,” under her breath, but Scott doesn’t acknowledge her. 

As soon as the door to the building is opened, Derek is suffocated with a honey rich scent he would recognize anywhere: his mate is here. His mate, the one who shot him.

Laura releases Derek from her hug and straightens up, looking like an alpha werewolf with perfect control. John squares his shoulder, looking like he’s ready for a fight. Scott and the girl beside him just look relieved. An older man walks in first. He eyes Laura, then John before turning his attention to Derek.

“You’re awake.”

Derek can’t tell whether or not it’s a question, and whether or not the man is happy about it. But his attention focuses completely on the second person who enters the room. The first thing that Derek notices aside from his scent is how tall he his and how he carries himself with confidence and flawless control. Derek drags his gaze over his body, over pale skin and delicate beauty marks, up to sharp bourbon eyes.

His mate is indisputably beautiful. 

“It’s good that he’s-.” The man cuts off whatever sentence he had been trying to say as soon as his gaze locks on John’s figure. “Dad?”

John’s expression doesn’t soften at the sight of his son. Instead, something in it gets a little colder. “Would you like to tell just what the hell you’re doing, kid?”

Stiles, Derek’s mind supplies, sputters. “What-. What are you doing here, dad?” He looks between Laura and Derek, then back to his father. 

John crosses his arms. “I don’t think you get to be the one to ask questions here,” he stares simply, staring Stiles down. 

“Mr. Stilinski,” the older man says, breaking whatever silent conversation was going on between father and son. “I know that you have a lot of questions, and we would be happy to answer all of them. But for now, would it be alright if we check Derek over, make sure he is back to one hundred percent again? We want to make sure that he's healed.”

Everyone looks at Derek at that question. He feels himself shrink when Stiles’ gaze locks on him. Gods, how stupid he must look right now, sitting on an exam table with a dumb expression. His mate is probably disgusted by him. Worse, he probably pities him. 

_He shot you_ , his brain supplies. Derek kindly tells that part of his brain to shut the fuck up.

Laura tilts her head to look at them all, then nods, concern for her brother winning out after she decides that they’re not a threat.

The man gestures for Stiles to step closer to Derek. While he does just that, Derek holds his body stiff.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” Stiles says softly, holding out his open palms in the direction of Derek’s chest. His hands begin glowing faintly, then warmth envelopes Derek. Where his body had been stiff and sore before, now he feels like a melted puddle. Whether it’s the magick or the proximity to his mate, Derek can’t say for sure. 

“He looks good, Chris,” Stiles says, stepping back and dropping his hands. “His body is completely healed.”

The older man, Chris nods, and watches Derek as he climbs off of the table to stand beside his sister. “That’s good.” He sighs. “My name is Chris Argent.” Both Derek and Laura tense. They know the Argents only too well, from the horror stories they were told about hunters when they were kids, from the horror stories that are their own memories. It was an Argent who burned their house to the ground with the rest of their family locked inside. It was an Argent who took away everything that they ever loved. Chris seems to understand this, because he sighs sadly and bares his throat to Laura without hesitation. “I seperated from my family years before Kate went after you. My father was as corrupt as she was, so angry and hell bent on making me that way too. I couldn’t handle it, so I took my daughter and turned my back on hunting. I stayed away from it until I heard word of what had happened to your family, until I knew what they had done. Then I knew that I couldn't turn a blind eye to this world.”

Laura cocks her head to one side and examines him carefully. “You went after them,” she says finally, confident, as if she already knows this story.

“Yes. They had to pay for what they had done. They had to pay for breaking the code.” Laura nods. All Derek had known about Kate’s fate was that she had been killed. He had thought that a werewolf had finished her off, not that her own brother had. “It took several years for me to win back the trust of the other hunters in the community, but it was necessary for what we have here.”

“And just what exactly is that,” John growls out. 

Chris doesn’t react to the hostility in his voice. “It’s a rehabilitation program, of sorts. Being connected to the hunting community allows us to know where werewolves are being hunted, which means that we can intervene. We join the hunt alongside the others, but instead of killing any weres, Stiles uses his Spark to make it seem like we do. That way the hunters think that the job is done, and we can move the packs without being detected. Usually we try and get there before the start of the physical hunt, but we were late this time and they are already following Derek’s trail. That’s why we had to act as we did.” They all stare at him like he’s insane. “I know what it sounds like, but it’s the truth.”

“You pretend to hunt werewolves and then save them,” Laura recounts, eyebrows high is disbelief. Chris nods.

John rubs at his face. “And how did you all get involved with this?”

Scott responds to his question, not Stiles. “I was attacked by a rogue alpha in high school. Allison and I were dating at the time, and she recognized the signs before I had even understood what happened. Her dad helped track down the alpha before it hurt anyone else, and then he helped teach me control. After high school, I wanted to do what he does, help save other werewolves.”

John eyes his son. “And let me guess, where Scott goes, so do you?”

Stiles looks sheepish as he shrugs. All of the confidence he had before has been replaced by nervousness, like he doesn’t quite know how to hold his body. Derek hates it.

“The hunters think that your brother is dead,” Chris says, voice softer than it has been since he’s showed up. “Stiles managed to convince him that they’re job is over, but until they get another hunt they might stick around. It would be for the best if you-.”

“We’re not leaving,” Laura states simply before he can even suggest it. “Beacon Hills is our home. This is Hale territory, and we’re not giving it up again. Thank you for the heads up, and thank you for saving my brother, but we won’t run away.”

Chris looks like he had been expecting this. He suggests that they exchange contact information in case something else comes up, and Laura actually agrees, which Derek thinks is a huge shock. After that though, he excuses himself. Everyone else stays rooted in place.

Finally, Stiles speaks. “What are you doing here, Dad? You know about werewolves?”

John sighs, the anger in his body finally relaxing slightly. “Yeah. I’ve known about them for a few months. Laura works at the station. There was a case we had about a month after she got the job, one that I had been working. There were supernatural aspects to the case that I was obviously unprepared for when I went after my suspect, but Laura knew was was going on and was ready for the fight. She saved my life that night, and that was when she told me about werewolves.”

“Now he’s pack,” Laura says simply, like it explains everything. In a way, it does. Scott and Stiles frown at that, staring at John for a drawn out moment.

“I can’t believe you joined a wolf pack,” Stiles says finally, brows furrowing. “And I didn’t even know about it. You didn’t even tell me.”

At that, John’s anger comes back. “Oh, just like you never told me about what happened to Scott. Or about the fact that you apparently use magick? This all happened when you were in high school, and you never said anything about it to me. Just-. Do you actually even work for some tech agency, or was that a lie too?”

Stiles flinches at the accusation, and Derek’s wolf breaks. He can’t stand by and watch his mate hurt, not without stepping up to protect him. He’s moved to stand between Stiles and John, face twisted with his beta shift, before he even knows what’s happening. Everyone in the room freezes.

Finally, Laura snorts. “Wow, little bro. This is the weirdest mating story I think I’ve ever heard, and Grandma Hale carried Grandpa all the way through town when she met him.”

It takes a second before Derek understands what she’s said, and then he’s mortified. He wasn’t really planning on mentioning that Stiles was his mate (how would that conversation even have gone), and now everyone, including John, knows. So Derek does the only logical thing he can think of when he regains control. He flees. Laura and John yell after him, but Derek runs and doesn’t stop until he’s tucked away in his room at their house, ignoring the questions from the betas who were watching a movie when he barged in.

When Laura comes home a few hours later, she doesn’t bring up anything that happened at the vets. Instead she just lets herself into Derek’s room and curls up with him on the bed like she used to do when they were small. She doesn't have to say that she’s sorry for Derek to understand, and he appreciates having her around more than ever. Eventually the other betas wander in, and it becomes a puppy pile with Derek at the center. He’s warm, and so happy for everything that he has. 

But still, even surrounded by so much support there is a phantom scent lingering in his head that refuses to let him sleep. He can’t shake Stiles from his head.

\----------

Three days after everything at the vet happened, John calls Derek up and suggests that they meet for lunch. Derek agrees immediately. The piece that he’s been doing for work has been stressing him out, so lunch gives him a perfect escape from it. And even though he’s embarrassed to see John again, he hates that it feels like he can’t go and talk to him about anything. Plus, John sounded happy on the phone, rattling on about the case he’s working and about how nice it is to have his son home again, as though nothing had happened at all.

So Derek is happy about meeting up with John, right up to the point when he shows up at the diner and sees Stiles sitting in their usual booth. Then Derek’s cursing John’s name under his breath. Because Stiles has been watching for him, and he perks up immediately when he sees Derek walk in. There’s no avoiding him.

“Hey!” Stiles greets when Derek settles into the booth across from him. “How are you feeling?” Derek shrugs, trying to avoid making eye contact with the man across from him. Stiles is having none of that though. He hooks his ankle around Derek's under the table, smiling broadly when Derek looks at him in surprise. 

“Listen, I know this is a little weird, and I know that it might be for a while, but I would like to give this a shot. I don’t know a lot about mates, but I do know that finding yours is something special. The way we met shouldn’t hinder our possibility.”

He sounds so confident, so sure of himself. It leaves a bitter taste in Derek’s mouth for some reason. “I don't need your pity or anything,” he mutters.

“Pity? I don’t-. Derek, that’s not what this is about. Hell, this doesn’t even have anything to do with being your mate.” Derek watches him closely, taking in Stiles’ easy smile and warm eyes. “You know, before I came back into town, my dad started telling me all about this great guy he met a few months ago, sharing stories with me about how close they’ve become and how he thinks I would really like him if we met. Everything I heard about this guy, about you, made me want to come home just so I could meet you.”

It takes Derek a moment to understand what Stiles isn’t saying. “You like me?”

Stiles shrugs, leaning back in his seat. He keeps his ankle pressed against Derek’s. “I know that we didn't meet under ideal circumstances, but that doesn't mean that I don’t want to get to know you. Because I wanted to do that well before I found out we were mates. If my dad hadn’t wanted to meddle a little to set up this date, I would have shown up at your house a while ago.”

The ugly feeling in his chest loosens a bit, replaced with a mounting excitement and Stiles’ sweet scent. “He’s not mad about it?”

Tilting his head back, Stiles laughs. “Gods, no. Honestly, after we sorted everything out between us, he was ready to throw me at you. My dad thinks your kind of wonderful, Derek. He’s been wanting to try to set us up for months. And even though he wanted me to meet you, even though he’s happy that we’re mates, he warned me about what would happen if I ever hurt you. He warned me about it, and I’m his son!”

Finally, all of Derek’s trepidation is gone. “I want to get to know you too.”

Stiles’ expression softens into a fond look. “Good. That’s-. That’s really good.”

As the waiter comes over, Stiles grins. “First things first,” he says while rubbing his hands together, looking like a gleeful mad scientist. “It is my sacred belief that curly fries are a major part of the food pyramid, and thus should be worshipped by us Everyman.”

The excited way he says it makes Derek curl over in laughter. Stiles eyes light up when it makes Derek laugh, and he presses his other ankle against Derek’s so that his legs are trapped, the gesture simple but also intimate. 

It doesn’t matter how they met. It doesn’t matter that John and Laura are sitting three booths away trying to act like they're getting away with spying on the date. It doesn’t even really matter that they’re mates, not yet anyway. Because sitting here with Stiles, the only thing that matters at all is their possibility. 

\------------

Their mating story is definitely the weirdest, most unconventional one that anyone will here for a very long time.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for Sterek week 2017 day four, for the theme mates.


End file.
